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How do you encourage clients to take up your SEO services?

When discussing SEO and Social Media to non computer clients they often feel like they wandered into this weirtd world behind the computer screen. I've been able to relate what we do to real world examples to some degree yet I'm still left feeling like they are taking a leap of faith when taking on our SEO and Social Media services. What tips do you have for better bridging this knowledge gap?

5 Responses

Hi Daniel:Most of the clients I deal with fall into that category so I'll share what I do. I use real world examples snd draw paralells to our world.

To use a current example of someone I'm working with now, they sell clothing and know next to nothing about the internet. When I had to explain the importance of SEO, Design and Usability I used an example of an actual bricks and mortar woman's clothing store.I'll relate it as if I were telling them the story here:

If your store were located in an out of the way strip mall with no signage and only a door in front, and you never advertised nor told anyone about your location, how many people do you think would be coming to your shop?. The same holds true for a website that ignores SEO. SEO is how people find your shop.

If the strip mall for that same store had a parking lot with potholes and weeds growing here and there, and the paint was peeling on the store front, how many shoppers would be confident that the really nice clothes they were looking for would be located behind that door? That first impression they get is just as important as the first impression they get when they cme to your website for the first time. Solidsite design can be the difference between them leaving to go back to the SERP's or exploringyour site further.

Finally, on to the interiror of the womans clothing store. If all your inventory were just piled intounmarked boxes that were scattered about the floor, how many shoppers would hang around and rifle through those boxes looking for clothes? Answer: none.Unless those shoppers had a *really* compelling reaso (like anything they found was 95% off)f they wouldn't last a minute in your store. Having a usable website is similar to that clothing store having having all the inventory hanging neatly on racks with clearly marked sections (Petite, Plus size, etc.) and clearly presented clothing tags. A shopper should be able to walk in and browse and find every bit of clothing for sale and have every question answered, all without any human intervention. That's the equivalent of having a usable website.

I really think that it's all about the way you communicate with your client.

Generally speaking, in the scenario you provided, my guess is that your client don't have an internal reference about SEO. Human brains works for comparison. What happens is that when you speak about SEO to this type of client, they tend to compare what you're explaining to the nearest experience they stored internally and that they think is the most similar to the story that you're telling.

You can see it when you try to explain your SEO service and you get response like "You know, I tried 7 years ago with those kind of things and I lost 3000$" :)

In my view you have to speak about something that your client understand. Something that you are sure your client had as an internal experience.

What ? Outcomes.

I mean, everyone in the management knows how hard is to attract new client, to sell more stuff, to create ads that works etc. Speak about this.

Let's say that you are trying to sell an SEO service.. Ask yoursel this question: So what ? Which is the most valuable outcome that the client will get implementing my SEO strategy ? And speak about the outcome, about the WHAT not the HOW.

I make you an example. Let's say that your trying to sell an SEO/SMM service to a company in the buildings construction field.

You can speak about SEO, how it works, how google is amazing bla bla bla.

Or you can say: how much does it cost, to your company, to acquire a new client/lead ? Because I did some work online for a client of mine that is involved in your niche and his acquisition cost for a new lead was 3$ and for a new client 30$ and he was getting 20 new lead per day and 3 new clients per day. Does it interest you ?

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